


Finding Your Way

by Illiad_And_Oddity



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, I make my own fun okay?, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-10-15
Updated: 2014-07-18
Packaged: 2017-11-16 10:27:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/538478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Illiad_And_Oddity/pseuds/Illiad_And_Oddity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What do you say when you finally meet the person you've been looking for all your life?  And once you've found your soulmate, what the hell comes next?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Finding

By the age of ten, everybody had heard of the Pull. It was a feeling everyone had, very small and slight, that something was telling you to go somewhere. Zack had quite suddenly felt it at the age of two, and he had gotten separated from his parents and horribly lost, heading vaguely northward in the direction the Pull was tugging him.

His father found him late at night, and brought him home, and the next morning explained that what he was feeling was a good thing, and it would someday lead him to his soulmate, just the same way the Pull had lead him to Zack's mother.

"Somewhere out there is a girl who's feeling that same Pull, and it's leading her towards you. And someday you two will meet one another and it will be wonderful. But you have to wait until you're older to go after her."

So Zack waited until he was fourteen and the Pull was calling him inevitably towards Midgar, and decided to enlist in Shinra's army so that he would be able to go find the girl he was being guided towards sooner.

~~~

Cloud had felt the Pull all of his life, and didn't learn what it was until he was seven. He'd heard a few kids talking about pulling and soulmates and other mushy stuff and finally decided to ask his mother what it was.

"The Pull guides you towards happiness," she said, "It's a very slight feeling, but it never goes away. It's like someone tied a little thread around your finger and is tugging on it, only you feel it in your heart. Somewhere in the world, someone else is feeling that same pull guiding them towards you."

"Oh," Cloud said, "That's what it is."

Once he had a name for it, Cloud was able to recognize the feeling that had always been there. Whoever was at the other end of his thread must have travelled an awful lot, because his pull tugged him every which way - north, south, east and west, but most often it pulled him east, towards Midgar. So eventually, Cloud decided to enlist in Shinra. He left home, not quite sure what he was hoping for but excited nonetheless.

~~~

Midgar was awfully big and awfully busy. Zack hoped for free time to look for his soulmate, but Shinra duties kept him hopping so that he never really had a chance, and once he made SOLDIER 3rd he was deployed to Wutai, which quite soundly defeated his original purpose. He spent over a year there, never with enough time to come home and find the one who was calling to him. It wasn't until after the war that he returned to Midgar, and took a fateful tumble through the floor of the sector five reactor.

~~~

Cloud was kept busy for his first few weeks at Shinra, and basic training was so exhausting that he spent his free hours each evening just falling into bed. He knew his soulmate must be very close, because the Pull had never been so strong. Hopefully, his soulmate would find him. Although tomorrow there was going to be an assembly, so maybe afterwards he wouldn't be too exhausted to go look. He slept deeply, with few dreams. Tomorrow would be the day.

~~~

Zack felt fuzzy, not unlike when he'd been sparring with Angeal and the man had given him a solid rap on the head with the hilt of his sword. Something smelled nice, and whatever he was lying on was very comfortable... he could just nap here a while, but something wasn't letting him.

"Hellooo?"

 _Open your eyes!_ The Pull was almost like a voice. _Open your eyes! NOW!_

~~~

Cloud shuffled into the auditorium with hundreds of other cadets, keeping his head down and watching his feet so that he wouldn't step on anyone else's. He found his seat without incident and waited patiently for it to begin, idly picking at a fingernail.

And suddenly, the Pull was stronger than he'd ever felt it before. 

_Look up!_ It felt like a scream in his head. _Look up! NOW!_

~~~

Zack opened his eyes, and saw stunning green.

~~~

Cloud looked up, and saw only silver and black.

~~~

What did you say when you finally met the person you had been looking for all your life? Zack stared for a moment, then smiled.

"I always hoped you'd be cute."

~~~

Sephiroth. It was _General Sephiroth_ that his heart had been pulling him to. They were in the middle of an assembly. Cloud couldn't run to Sephiroth like he wanted to, but he knew that both of them had felt it. Sephiroth looked stunned, and then quirked a small smile, so tiny and brief Cloud could have missed it. But he couldn't miss anything about Sephiroth.

The smile said: _Found you_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I blame Tomo, for doing a couple of lovely red string of fate drawings and inspiring me.
> 
> Go check them out! [Zack/Aerith](http://my.deviantart.com/messages/#/d5i1yr4) [Cloud/Sephiroth](http://tomowowo.tumblr.com/post/33660726132/cloud-had-felt-the-pull-all-of-his-life-and)


	2. Chapter 2

"I always hoped you'd be cute."

Well, okay, that wasn't a bad first thing to say to your soulmate. It would probably make his dad grin when Zack told him about meeting her. He _had_ always hoped his soulmate would be cute.

And, boy, was she ever cute! She had a rather surprised look in her wide green eyes, honey-brown hair framing her face in two little ringlets, and as she registered what he had said, she smiled brilliantly, revealing an absolutely _adorable_ dimple in her chin and left cheek.

She giggled at him, "Well, I hoped you'd be tall, dark, and handsome."

"Guess we both got what we wanted," Zack said, giving her a cheeky grin. With a quick move, he jumped to his feet. He could have gotten up with normal way, he supposed, but it was worth it to see her look so impressed.

"I'm Zack. What's your name?"

"I'm Aerith."

"So..." Zack said, looking around, "Where exactly am I?"

"Sector 5 slums," Aerith said, "I was so shocked when you fell through the roof. I thought for sure you were dead. But you don't even look hurt."

"Takes a lot more than a little fall to hurt a guy like me," Zack joked, and flexed dramatically, "I'm strong!"

Aerith giggled at him again, "You're a weirdo, is what you are."

"Yeah, but I made you smile," Zack looked up at the ceiling, and saw the hole which he must have made while falling into this church. He winced. Okay, that fall was no walk in the park, even for a SOLDIER. He must have gotten lucky. He walked a little more towards the hole, looking at the broken timbers.

"Don't step on the flowers!" Aerith interrupted his thoughts suddenly.

Zack looked where he was about to step, and jumped back. He hadn't even noticed the flowers, but they certainly explained the pleasant smell in here. Flowers in Midgar? Growing below the plate, no less?

"Do you grow these?" he asked, "You must have a heck of a green thumb."

"They just grow here for some reason," Aerith said, "I managed to transplant some outside my house, too, but they don't do as well there."

"They're beautiful," Zack said, bending down to take a look at the delicate yellow and white petals, "Man, you could open up a florist's shop with these. I bet people would pay a lot for fresh flowers in Midgar."

"Well, maybe..." Aerith said, looking like she'd never considered it before.

They lapsed into silence for a while. Zack wasn't exactly sure how to proceed. You definitely knew it when you met your soulmate, and he liked Aerith already, but... they were basically strangers.

"Hey," he said suddenly, getting to his feet, "Let's go on a date!"

"What?" Aerith said.

"Yeah, a date!" Zack said, holding out his hand to her, "You can show me around down here, we can have some fun and get to know each other. I mean, no one ever really tells you what you're supposed to do _after_ you meet your soulmate, so I think we should get to know each other. What do you think?"

Aerith smiled, and accepted his hand, "I think that sounds wonderful."

Holding Aerith's hand tingled, it felt a little bit like electricity... like holding a mastered thunder materia in his hand. Was this what everyone felt like when they first touched their soulmate? They looked at each other, and he knew Aerith was thinking the same thing.

“Your hands are warm,” she said, “Even through the gloves.”

“Guess I'm just that hot, huh?” Zack said, knowing that his grin had to be one of the goofiest lopsided grins ever.

Aerith laughed. She had a very pretty laugh. It didn't sound like church bells or anything fancy like that, but it was just a nice sound, and it made Zack feel like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. She reached for his other hand, and laced her fingers in between his.

“You're wrong, you know,” she said, “You're not _quite_ tall, dark, and handsome. You're tall, but I think you're too silly to pull off the 'dark and handsome' part properly.”

Zack laughed, “One out of three. Close enough for Shinra work, right?”

Aerith snorted, and leaned her head against his chest as she was overcome with giggles, Zack took the opportunity to let go of her hands and hug her. He definitely understood the urge to giggle. The happiness he felt right now was beyond compare, better than all of his birthdays rolled into one.

“Can I kiss you?” he asked eagerly.

Aerith nodded, and tilted her face up towards Zack, “Yes.”

She tasted like sunshine.

 

~~~

 

Cloud sat through the rest of the assembly in a daze. Sephiroth appeared to get a message on his PHS and left barely ten minutes in, but Cloud was quite certain it was faked. If he focused, he could feel Sephiroth moving around in the building. He went upstairs, first, probably back to the SOLDIER floor, which Cloud didn’t have access to, so that wouldn’t work. How would he see Sephiroth again? It was nearly impossible for cadets to see SOLDIERs at all, let alone green recruits like Cloud to see _Sephiroth himself._

He did his best not to fidget, though he couldn’t pay attention, and about twenty minutes later, he felt Sephiroth come back downstairs. Perhaps Sephiroth was planning to meet him when they came out of the assembly?

But that couldn’t be it, because a few minutes later, Sephiroth went back upstairs, leaving Cloud reeling until they were dismissed. He wanted to run upstairs, throw himself into Sephiroth’s arms. _I’m here, I’m here, I found you_ … but that would be entirely inappropriate. Oh, really inappropriate, since Sephiroth was kind of like his boss. Would he have to resign or something? SOLDIER wasn’t directly in the chain of command he listened to…

He let the press of the crowd carry him out of the assembly hall and back to the locker rooms. The assembly had taken the place of afternoon drill, but they’d had to change for it anyway, which didn’t make a lot of sense to Cloud. He got back to his locker and opened it automatically, when his eyes caught something unusual lying on top of his clothes…

 

_To The Blue-Eyed Cadet:_

_I’ve sensed that you were close for a while now, but I was very surprised to finally see you in person. I hope you aren’t upset that I didn’t try and catch you coming out of the auditorium, but I would prefer our first meeting to be more private._

_The show starts at 20:00. I look forward to seeing you there._

_\- Sephiroth_

 

Enclosed with the letter was a ticket to the Midgar Ballet Company’s performance of La Bayadere, at the Queen Andrea theatre in Sector 3.

_Ballet?_ Cloud didn’t think he owned any clothes fancy enough to wear to a ballet. He glanced at the ticket again. Sector 3. He was _certain_ he didn’t own clothing fancy enough for anything in Sector 3. He probably didn’t own anything fancy enough to be a _homeless person_ in Sector 3.

_Who cares!? I’m not going to chicken out of meeting my soulmate because I don’t have fancy enough clothing!_

He folded the letter reverently and put it safely back in his pocket. He checked the clock – 15:30. He only had a few more hours to wait before he would finally meet his soulmate.  He had to get ready!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art for this chapter done once again by my lovely Tomo. [She's wonderful, go shower her with praise and affection.](http://tomowowowo.tumblr.com/)

**Author's Note:**

> I blame Tomo, for doing a couple of lovely red string of fate drawings and inspiring me.
> 
> Go check them out! [Zack/Aerith](http://my.deviantart.com/messages/#/d5i1yr4) [Cloud/Sephiroth](http://tomowowowo.tumblr.com/post/33660726132/cloud-had-felt-the-pull-all-of-his-life-and)


End file.
